Jobs and Kids: Female Employment and Fertility in Rural China

Hai Fang, Karen Eggleston, John Rizzo and Richard Zeckhauser

No 15886, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Data on 2,355 married women from the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey are used to study how female employment affects fertility in China. China has deep concerns with both population size and female employment, so the relationship between the two should be better understood. Causality flows in both directions. A conceptual model shows how employment prospects affect fertility. Then a well-validated instrumental variable isolates this effect. Female employment reduces a married woman's preferred number of children by 0.35 on average and her actual number by 0.50. Ramifications for China's one-child policy are discussed.

JEL-codes: J13 J18 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-dev, nep-lab and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Hai Fang & Karen N Eggleston & John A Rizzo & Richard J Zeckhauser, 2013. "Jobs and kids: female employment and fertility in China," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, vol 2(1).

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